


Allied, Sworn, Loved

by Lizlow



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 15:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18528271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizlow/pseuds/Lizlow
Summary: Sworn brothers are brothers all the same.These words are tucked deeply into the folds of their brains; it’s their verycore. They act with the very root of their values, charging straight ahead, even if the outcome isn’t clear.Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, why, they're all the same, those troublesome brothers.





	1. A Tale of Three Found Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> My friend: knowing you, you will just KILL ME with asl, do it lizzy, pull the trigger  
> Me: closes my eyes well cluck
> 
> “I gotta try.” I decided, so I did!
> 
> This is a four-chapter piece, I hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sworn brothers are brothers all the same._  
>  To these words, they forge a forever bond, one that becomes tucked away until the climatic day it is unraveled. When it comes out to the world over, it shakes its very **core**. 
> 
> For now, however, they are simply three boys, with dreams of different ships, and shores, and freedom all the like. 
> 
> _They're all the same, you know, those troublesome brothers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some elements added here are very relevant to later scenes in the other chapters. I consider these pretty… explorative on the front that I’m still trying to figure things out in terms of writing with these characters, in this world. There’s quite a bit of ideas I could play around with, but here we are! I just finished the main story of PW3 and I'm am very big emotion over these brothers.

_Sworn brothers are brothers all the same._

To these words, they forge a forever bond, one that becomes tucked away until the climatic day it is unraveled. When it comes out to the World over, it shakes its very **core**. Through laughter and mischief, through knee-scrapes and cuts upon the face, these three ruckus-causing children show even the toughest of adults that they will not let the impossible stop them.

They are not afraid of the unknown, at least they try not to be. It’s really cool and exciting and far better than being stuck in awfully dreadful learning, or being shackled by fates they absolutely do not want.

They piece together a place for themselves in this very confusing sea, defying the commandants around them, and everything is way more fun once they do it. No judgement, not in the mean way, just three young boys tied together by a newly made destiny, and fueled by dreams.

They’ll look out upon the ocean, eyes alighted, and swear, swear upon the bottom of their hearts that they’ll each set sail at seventeen, and become pirates.

To find a meaningful life, to write an adventurous book, to become an ultimate king.

Even if the World spits in their faces, they’ll be each other’s allies. Each other’s _family_.

It’s just Ace and Sabo at first. For five years strong they steal, save, and wish to have enough one day to get a pirate ship of their own. Then they can leave this little island and finally taste the different sea breezes. Ace doesn’t question why Sabo lives in the Gray Terminal. Plenty of people live there, for many reasons. Sabo even asks Ace to consider living there with him. They’re friends, _best_ _friends_. Nothing’s going to change that.

“Think you’ll be able to navigate it?” whispers Ace as he crosses his arms, and gives a small look to Sabo. It’s a way to pass time while they’re hiding out like this.

“I haven’t been wasting my time alone, Ace!” Sabo nods, “This is something I _like_ studying!” They’ll have to put practice to use at some point, but for now they think and discuss and _run_!

“Man, you beat me again!”

“So? We’re saving up together!”

 _Then_ , along comes Luffy, another poor kid that _Grandpa_ Garp lops off on old Dadan while he’s off on Marine Duty. Like a little _chick_ , Luffy latches onto Ace, and Ace tries, _tries_ so hard to get rid of him. A kick here, a dash there, _get lost, stay home, mind your own business_ , he spits. This is his space, his and Sabo’s, why should he babysit some brat? Why should this kid try to barge in on his and Sabo’s plans? _Not mad at me? For all that? … **Friends?**_

“Pirates? You guys wanna be pirates? I do too!”

“He knows our secret. We gotta kill him.”

“Yeah!”

Yet, all that naïve toughness falls apart when danger falls before them, and some dumb pirates that they don’t want to be like take Luffy captive. Try as they might to just move on, they can’t, and Ace and Sabo are there to get him out of there. It _was_ because of their thievery that he was targeted…

 _Why does he keep chasing me around? Why—_ “Why didn’t you rat me out?”

“You’re—!” Luffy sniffles and clings, “All I have!”

“You… You need me?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you… want me to be alive?”

“Huh? Of course I do!!”

He’s stupid, but loyal, even to those that reject him, because he’s _decided_ that he likes them. He must be a whole heap of trouble, but he’s their trouble now.

Ace and Sabo pull on Luffy’s cheeks and see that he stretches more than normal.

“Well, he’ll be interesting,” Sabo whispers.

The three of them become locked together soon after that. Because of that mess, Sabo ends up moving in with them, much to Dadan’s dismay, seeing another brat in her midst, but it just solidifies to the trio that this is how things are meant to be. So to chores and play and work they _continue!_ They may end up getting really rough training, of their own choice and otherwise, but they’re getting stronger and stronger, so that they can be amazingly powerful pirates who _can_ become known worldwide!

* * *

When they find out that Sabo is the son of a noble, they don’t care. They forced him to talk about it, but it’s a big _‘So what?_ ’ To them, he’s not like all those people in town; he’s Sabo, their friend. Their _brother_.

“I want to see the world and write a book! Let’s get stronger and be free!” Sabo is certain in his words.

“Ha, that was the plan! I’ll go out and win! I’ll prove my life’s worth something!” Ace gleams.

“Well,” Luffy looks straight ahead, “I’m gonna be the Pirate King!”

“Whoa, I can’t believe you actually said that…” Ace stares right at Luffy, seeing that dumb, confident smile plastered on his face. A dream right from the heart, rooted in every declaration to be stronger.

“Haha, you’re so funny, Luffy! I can’t wait to see what you’ll be like when we grow up!”

And with this declaration, they drink sake they stole from Dadan, swearing forever with these sips that they are indeed _family_. They may not share blood, but they have more than blood alone – experiences _and_ care. They may all want to be captains; their futures will be decided when they get there, they decide. For now, they’ll get even stronger, so that they can make it!

They also feast upon their catches and spoils the day after! Jumping right into it, they eat and they eat and _boy_ can Ace and Luffy eat! Sabo watches, heart fuller than his stomach, as his dear brothers swipe and pack down more than a single man’s meal. He beams, ever bright, because he’s long decided that it’s them he’d do anything for, _not_ the ones whose blood runs through his veins.

Ace begins to doze off in the middle of eating, despite there clearly being food before him, and Luffy takes the opportunity to try and snatch away a large piece of meat. The elder is jolted awake by the younger’s rubber arm flopping awkwardly, still not yet perfected on his reach.

“Man, your ability is still lame!”

“It is _not_!”

The two tussle a bit, only to be stopped by Sabo’s quick mediation, which, in this case, is simply taking to stealing the spotlight by swiping some of the other food that’s in front of them. He likes this though, helping them out, knowing there’s genuine attachment in each action. Even these fights never last. It’s just so… _so_ … _wonderful!_ Being with them, exploring with them, making each and every corner they can reach with their little hands a part of their _kingdom_.

Sabo crosses his legs afterwards, looking between Ace and Luffy. “Stars are supposed to be great for navigation,” he says and, soon, he’s staring up at the sky through the break in the trees.

“That’s what those books—” Ace starts, stopping only to chew a bit more, “you grabbed say, right?”

“Did they?” Luffy butts in between bites of his own, “I just looked at the pictures.”

“We know that!” Ace jects back, “You drew poorly in them too.”

“Haha, I think Luffy added a lot to them!” Sabo says, and Luffy laughs proudly. See, he added himself, Ace, and Sabo on a ship! Even if the crew of his own he’s looking for might not end up being them, even if he’s asked them, it _is_ fun to think about. “I’ll read you some of the stories you like later, Luffy,” Sabo adds, and the younger’s eyes light up instantly. “But, anyway, I think I like the sun better! It’s a lot warmer, and a lot brighter. Isn’t it super bright with life?”

“Life?”

“Yeah! All the stars are hopes. All the faraway islands can see the same ones too. But the sun’s the _biggest_ star. It’s the _coolest_ one!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it!” Ace looks up, “and _everyone_ knows the sun’s name, yeah?”

“Mmhmm! It’s got a name everywhere!”

Luffy tilts his head. What he’s getting from this is that Ace and Sabo are really happy, and that – _yeah_ – the sun is really _cool!_ “I like the sun too!”

Ideas cross and swears are made, deeper and deeper. Ace, who hasn’t been sure of himself in the past, has learned that he can make it, day by day, thanks to these guys. Hearing this, about the sun, that big fireball that _all_ know about. He’s right. It’s really inviting.

Can he be _fiery_ and _individual_ and _known_ , just like _it_?

 _Thanks, Sabo_ , he thinks, as Luffy throws his hands up and breathes out and then falls right over against Ace, quickly asleep, snoring away.

“You take him.”

“Eh? Let’s not move him.”

“He’s heavy.”

“Bet he thinks you’re warm and comfy.”

Ace frowns, ticking, debating just pushing Luffy right on over and off, but in the end Luffy gets to stay right where he is. For the time being. What’s the hurt, he _supposes_ , as long as they’re not going to get jumped or something really annoying like that.

No one’s going to take this from him. Not yet.

* * *

So, things continue just like that, into yet another day. They really have to make the most of them, because they aren’t going to be on this island forever, and they surely have to get everything together sooner than later. It’s a matter of time, of course, before the years pass and the promised age comes.

It’s on another clear day, not long at all after the last, that Luffy has a crystal idea, it suddenly hitting him. Being him, he’ll not hold it in! They’re going to be pirates, _pirates!_ How could they have had a feast without one of the most important parts?

“If we’re gonna be pirates, we’re gonna have to know how to sing!” He announces, sitting up and placing his hands on his ankles, looking at Ace and Sabo with _all_ the seriousness he can muster.

“Sing?”

Blinking, exchanged glances, and it all leads to Luffy grinning, widely, and nodding rapidly, “A song every pirate should know! Shanks and his crew sang it lots!”

He then proceeds to sing an awkward, probably slightly-off melody rendition of an old sea shanty, one known so widely as _Binks’ Sake_. Not that any of them would know that title though. “Yohohoho~yohohoho~”

“…!”

The other two both start laughing, almost to tears in Ace’s case, “You singing it barely makes it sound like a song!”

“That’s ‘cause we don’t have a musician! When _I’m_ a pirate, I’m gonna have a musician on my ship, one of the best! It’s really, really important!”

“Hahaha, I like that idea! We’ll have to make do now, if we want to really learn the song!”

“Yeah, Sabo gets it!”

Any anger and dissonance fade out to their daily adventures of plundering and strengthening. Luffy, pleased, shares little stories about Shanks and his crew, how they’re really cool pirates, how one his members has a kid around his age, how fun it is _now_. Even talk melds back into song, though.

Later that evening, they even manage to figure out a closer melody and sing it together in their treehouse. The noise causes a shout to tell them to quiet down, but _why_ should they listen? They just keep going, until they’re completely tuckered out! Sweet and sound and completely tuckered out, they fall asleep all sprawled out against each other.

Sure, Ace might wake up with Luffy’s hand almost in his mouth, and he might just bite down into that rubber for revenge. Sure, Sabo might find Luffy’s legs over his stomach, but that’s just fine. Close quarters just mean a lively tomorrow! That’s just how these brothers live.

Even if they end up part of different crews, which might just be inevitable since they won’t be turning seventeen at the same time, they’ll still have their memories. The feelings of shock waves through their skin and bones as they spar, the hunts and the dining and dashing, all add up, forever and ever!

They promise, they’ll definitely still see each other. The ocean may be big, but they can’t miss each other. They’re too noisy, too familiar, too connected.

Oh, joy to these days, where they can panel over and over on them like a highlight reel. Why, why can’t they last? Why do they feel like they’re slipping away?

Why… does it get torn away from them so fast?

* * *

It is revealed, once more, that so much is against their odds. Some might curse they’re bloodlines, pin it all on them, but maybe everything really just wants to test their metal, their resolve. Sabo gets taken away, to go back to his _real_ family, or something. But Ace and Luffy both know that it won’t make Sabo happy, because _they’re_ his family, so Ace punched back. Sabo… however, parlayed for their lives, and accepted his fate. Going back to being _alone_ , that’s no fair!

Ace and Luffy pick up those _dumb_ pirate boxes and try, try really hard to forget Sabo. Even though it’s impossible.

Things don’t get easier.

Fire circles them, and it’s terrifying. Those _bad_ pirates come and force them to reveal their treasure, and they even go as far as to bundle Sabo in with the rest of the nobles, who set the fires, to burn what they called tries. Luffy fights them, tries to resist giving away the location, because it’s Ace’s and Sabo’s, and it should stay with them, but it doesn’t do much. Not at all.

He’s still weak!

Ace gives in, because Sabo would understand. He’s not here, but he’d rather his brothers have their lives than some money they can make back one day. There’s no coming back from the dead, unless there’s some weird magic involved. They can’t die here, not when they haven’t even gotten close to freedom.

Shouting, in comes Dadan and family, and Luffy is safe. But Ace keeps his feet firm, and his back to his retreating brother and the others. He won’t run away. He’s already sworn that, since long ago, but this time, and last time too, there’s something behind him that he has to guard.

He can’t lose what’s important.

In the end, Old Dadan’s alive too, and they both make it back. Luffy is sobbing, so much, jumping and gripping onto Ace from a distance with those rubber arms of his, and he almost smacks him in the face from his hurry. Still a kid. Still three years younger. He’ll cry less when he’s older, he says, but Ace doesn’t believe that.

The news hits them: Sabo is dead. He tried to set sail, and he was shot down before he even left the port.

“It’s because of Sabo, because of, of--” Ace can’t even manage his words properly as he kicks, while being held back. _Because of Sabo that I wanted to live!_

More and more Luffy can’t hold back. He sits on the cliff they shouted their dreams on, so near where they made their brotherly pact, and looks out at the clear ocean. It’s so pretty, so free, surely… Sabo made it out there? Surely it’s all a lie!

“See, y-you’re right here, Sabo! You can tell me all about the stars and your adventures with Ace before I got here and – _waahh!!_ ”

A letter comes for Ace and he reads it, and he cries and cries. Sure, he told Luffy not to cry anymore, because men aren’t supposed to be so weak that they cry like this! But the tears just won’t stop falling! Why did he try to forget him? When he knew that he couldn’t? When in the end, this happened?

He wanted Sabo to be his navigator! Hell, he just wants Sabo here, right here!

Why, why does the World continue to spite him?

_Hey, Ace. Sorry I’m setting out on the seas early. Let’s meet again! So, could you take care of Luffy for me for the time being? I know he’s lots of trouble. He’s still really weak, and a big crybaby, but he has you._

_Our bond… is my greatest treasure! We’ll always be brothers!_

Quietly, quieter than normal, he walks over to where Luffy is. Luffy tries his best to swallow back his tears and pull out his pride show how happy he is that Ace is alive! But these waterworks are for the sorrow, relief, _and_ fear he feels so the rivers overflow and the ocean-sized flood commences.

“How long are you gonna stay like that, Luffy?”

“A-Ace!!” Luffy sobs, grabbing Ace’s legs, “You’re not gonna die too, are you? Don’t die!”

Ace reaches down and pulls Luffy up and close, putting his other hand on his head for a moment, “Of course I’m not gonna die. Sabo told me to take care of you. I can’t leave my dumb, crybaby little brother alone.” _Promise_.

“Sabo was taken from us before he found freedom, so we gotta find it for him. We have to live a life without regrets!”

Luffy continues to cry, right against Ace, but even those falls will come to calm. They are strong. They can’t let the World know that it’s beat them this time. Even if it’s all difficult, even if getting around without Sabo isn’t easy at first, they can manage. Even if they still think they hear his voice, even if they fight it out and look to where he would have been and realize only seconds later… they can’t just _give up!_ They’ll keep working, until they’re powerful enough to make an impact, and _then_ their names will be heard!

They’ll achieve their dreams, so Sabo can be _triple_ proud of them.

“Rubber really isn’t useful for battle.”

“I’ll _make_ it useful! I really am gonna be the Pirate King, Ace!”

In order to affirm his vows, to protect those that that are important, especially this kid brother of his, Ace sets to respecting those that have done so. He’ll ask Makino to teach him how to introduce himself right, and he’ll thank that guy Luffy talks about, Shanks, since Shanks is the reason he met Luffy.

“Hey, Ace, read this to me.”

“Read it yourself.”

“I can’t.”

“Sabo really spoiled you.”

“That’s ‘cuz he was nice!”

Luffy frowns, and shoves the book at Ace anyway. “It’s not the same as the rest, I think.”

“How would you even know?!” Ace snaps, but his attention jumps to the open page of the book. “Give that to me.” He commands, yanking it away, anyway, and pouring over it.

> _The world is vast, and the freest place it has is the ocean. It’s big and wonderful and it can’t keep its grip on every place. I want to see every corner. I want to be out there._
> 
> _Even if the world is cruel, even if the blood it gave me is bad, it still gave me something good. It let me meet them. It let us become brothers. This is the book Luffy drew the most in, the one I took lots of notes in, the one I had us all sign._
> 
> _I don’t want to forget that. I want the world to know that. I’m grateful for my brothers. They’re the best! So I’m writing it down, because I’m free to do so._

“Ace?” Luffy says, poking Ace on the cheek, “You gonna read it to me?”

“Nope.”

Ace closes the book and looks out, past the edge of the sea, to where the sun meets it.

Until the day they set sail on their own, they’ll keep Sabo in their hearts, their dreams on their minds, and the sun bright above them.

* * *

Light breaks through the clouds in the skies, allied by their calls. These become their wills, and these are so strong, that it causes another to wake, saved by another, the father of one dear, but he doesn’t know that. He doesn’t know, doesn’t recall anything. Only that he wanted to leave that island. That he couldn’t go back to the man he was the son of.

Thus the young boy attacked at sea is reunited with life, and he stares up curiously to the light, and wonders why it’s making him so happy, yet so sad at the same time.

“Sabo.”

“Right, I know I oughta be careful right now. I just like being able to see the sea for myself. It’s good weather today.”

The man looms, and nods.

_These brothers, through sheer dreams alone, shall find themselves adrift atop the ocean’s waves. In their wake, they’ll give the very world that encases them strife. That’s just who they are._

_Aligned all the same, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, they’re all such troublesome brothers._


	2. Side Luffy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sworn brothers are brothers until the end, and beyond even that._
> 
> It is their alliance that grants them strength, and their pledge of being a family that fuels them forward. Having two older brothers and one younger is kind of strange, but the youngest is Luffy, so having two older ones is for the best. 
> 
> He's a reckless kid, but he's got good friends. 
> 
> His family? Well, they say he's got two older brothers, Sabo of the Revolutionary Army and Fire Fist Ace of the Whitebeard Pirates. And just the same as his older brothers, he grows on a crowd, but he's hopelessly troublesome!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “He’s got a reliable crew of his own. No matter what, he’ll be alright.” Portgas D. Ace to Jinbe in Impel Down
> 
> Luffy is first for the brothers, so this fic does go in reverse order for the initials! 
> 
> Putting it in that sense, Allied refers very well to Luffy, since Luffy’s allies, the Strawhats, his crew – his family – would become the people that kept him from breaking. After all the loss he’s suffered, he wants to see them, them, these people that are just so important to him.

_Sworn brothers are brothers until the end, and beyond even that._

_These words are tucked deeply into the folds of their brains. It’s a part of their very **core**. Even if they took to the seas at different times, they are united under and within the same expanse. They’ll meet again!_

_There’s no helping it if they act with the very root of their values. It’s just them, the ones that crave freedom, who charge straight ahead, without a clear outcome._

_They’re all the same, those troublesome brothers._

“Finally out! I want a crew of at least ten people!”

It’s just him, a small boat, and a hope. That’s how his journey begins. Luffy is seventeen, a rubber man, with a dream as fresh as the day it was conjured. From his time with Shanks, to the time with the brothers he enjoyed so dearly, he believes – _knows_ – he can make it far. Absolutely! He’ll assemble the _best crew ever_ and make his name _known_ across every sea!

No sea monster, Sea King or otherwise, can stop him on his tiny front. He may not be able to swim, but that just means he can’t fall in. Those adversaries in the ocean, he’ll dethrone, and maybe even befriend them all.

How cool would _that_ be?  

Well, guess what? No matter the odds, he’ll sail (or row in his current case) and do his best. Or he’ll die along the way, but at least he’d have died _trying_!

“Listen up, Ace!’ Luffy grins, hitting his chest, “it’s my turn to set sail! And it’s gonna be me that’ll be the Pirate King!”

Even if there’s no way he’d actually hear it, he’s sure Ace got his message. That’s just how these brothers are. It’s felt in their very soul. Like a little inkling that plants itself, or a piece of sea salt that gets in the eye. The ocean, and the sky too, feel so vast, so free!

He kicks bask for a moment. He hasn’t a clue where he’s going, and there’s no one around now, but it’ll work out. If he throws up his arm, he could probably stretch and grab himself a piece of the sun, but he’ll leave that for later.

 “Shishishi~! Gotta pass the time!” So, for now, he casts his voice into the sky and sings to pass the time. “Yohohoho~ yohohoho~!” A whirlpool _may_ be what he ends up caught in some seconds later, and he _might_ not be able to escape it, due to his ship being so tiny, but that’s okay!

_Sabo! Are you watching me? You believe me, right? Look at how much stronger I got! It’s thanks to you, and Ace, but I’ve been training on my own too! I’m gonna surpass who you would have been, and who Ace is! No question!_

Oh, he’s just itching to get into the middle of it all! Watch out, seas! Watch out, Shanks! Watch out, Ace! Luffy’s here!

He just has to get through this, but if he _can’t_ , then how could he be a _king_?

* * *

Each and every crew member he finds makes him happier and happier. They’re all the _greatest_ at what they do, and he can’t imagine finding anyone else like them. They’re his crew mates, his friends, but they aren’t just that. They’re his _family!_ Irreplaceable people that no map could ever find.

Amazing, awesome, he’s so glad they’re on this ship with him; they’re willing to go so far for him, because he’s willing to go to the ends of oceans for them. It doesn’t matter how dangerous the enemy is, even if it’s the entire _W_ _orld_ , he will stand tall.

_Sabo and Ace always mentioned how they were gonna show the World that they were gonna be free too! So being the World’s enemy doesn’t matter, if I have my crew!_

His very first friend on the seas isn’t a crew mate; it’s a young weakling that’s aspiring to be a Marine. If he can’t stand tall and chase his dreams, and declare them to the World, then how can he get anywhere? If you want something, you have to _grab_ it. They’ll be enemies one day, Luffy knows, but until then, and even past it, they can be friends.

They’ll be friends that have to fight one day, but it’s alright. He’s going to make a whole lot of friends on his journey, and he’s going to live how he wants! That’s the sort of stories he shares with him, and he prods too, asking more and more, what’s driven him so far?

“You’ll have to keep up with me, because I’m not going to stop improving!”

“I-I’m going to become strong!”

His name is Koby. It’s this guy that gets him to the island where he meets Zoro, and with Zoro, the Straw Hat Pirates are officially a crew! Even if they only have a tiny ship, they’ll get far. He’s the future Pirate King, so of course, he has to have the future greatest swordsman on his crew!

Then there’s Nami, his navigator. He takes an instant liking to her, and wastes no time in saving her and her village from a knotted fate. She’s the one that helps these two hopeless with directions fools get from point A to point B, saying that they’re so good-for-nothing when it comes to directions, it’s a miracle that they didn’t get completely lost at sea. Luffy would have been able to laugh it off if they did, though. She understands that pretty much instantly.

Next is Usopp, his sniper, and it takes Luffy hardly any time to recognize him as Yasopp’s son, since he heard so many stories from that crew member of Shanks’, and the similarities stand out too. Usopp’s a good guy, a liar for happiness, and a dreamer, so of course he fits right in. He’s ends up being a pretty stubborn guy, but he’s really fun to be around!

It’s in Syrup Village that they also get their first ship, and this ship become a precious crew member too. She’s going Going Merry, and they love her with every fiber of their being, even if they’re clumsy and injure her, they’re quick to repair her. She’s a precious crew mate too! Luffy loves sitting up on her head, and looking out over the waters to the sun, that’s shining really brightly.

“Yeah, Ace is looking at this same sky! I hope he’s seen my bounty!”

The long-awaited cook, Sanji, comes afterwards, and he’s a great guy! Luffy doesn’t back down when Sanji refuses his crew offer at first, because his sights were _set_. The food he makes is so delicious, and the attention to taste and detail makes Luffy look forward to every single meal – there’s no one’s cooking he’d rather eat more!

It’s these East Blue misfits that make way for the Grand Line, kicking up on a barrel, they rock and share their dreams.

“To become the Pirate King!”

“To become the world’s greatest swordsman!”

“To draw a map of the world!”

“To find All Blue!”

“To… To become a brave warrior of the sea!!”

* * *

Their ship’s doctor is really, really cool! A reindeer-human, and really skilled! That’s what Luffy thinks when Chopper joins their crew. It’s where he meets Chopper and saved his dear crew that he learns that Ace is waiting for him, right where they happen to be going for Vivi too.

_Ace, you’ll see how strong I’ve gotten! I can definitely beat you now!_

Of course, that’s not accounting for the fact that Ace still has three years on him, but like he cares! He’s got to be able to beat his older brother if he’s going to become Pirate King!

In Alabasta, the sun is beating down and so, _so_ hot, but there’s no fatigue in the world that can stop him from taking the time to talk to his brother. Seems his crew finds Ace nicer or something, but Luffy doesn’t miss a beat. It’s too bad the reunion is so short, but it’s fine! Ace is doing great, and living just as free as he wanted.

“I’m really happy I got to see ya, Ace!”

“Yeah, I’ll see ya around, Luffy! Don’t lose that paper.”

Luffy frowns, “There’s no way I’m gonna!”

While he’s trying to figure out a good place to put it, Ace seems to stop and give Nami something, and then Sanji goes out of his way to hand him something right before Ace jumps off.

“Nami, what’d Ace give you?”

Nami smiles, “Oh, just a book on navigation!”

“Eh? Really?”

“Mmhmm. I’ll tell you more later on.”

She moves to put it away inside the Merry without saying anything else, probably because they have to focus on what’s ahead. He’ll look forward to it then! When she leaves, he goes to bother Sanji.

“Sanji, did you cook something for him?”

“Yeah, happened to have extra. Can’t have him starving on the way out.”

“Heheh, that’s you for you! What’d ya make him?”

“What I usually make you,” Sanji answers, “He seemed more polite than you, but if you’re a bottomless pit, wouldn’t doubt he is too.”

“Hehehe, yeah! Ace and I used to get into eating contests all the time! You had that ready?”

Sanji says that it was a gut feeling, like it’s a good cook’s instinct to know when there’s a hungry mouth to feed. He hopes Ace likes it, and comes back for more sometime. Luffy thinks, when his crew is bigger, he’ll want Ace to meet them all again, and stay for a properly cooked meal. Then they can eat together like old times and sing and have a lot of fun!

It’s time to go onward, toward adventures, towards the more dangerous seas, the more powerful opponents, and even conquering the world! They’ll even go into the sky, fight a god, and be so close to ends that they might even be able to touch the sun if he reached out for it.

_You guys would be surprised too! Bet you’d think I’m lying, but land in the sky exists and it’s so cool!_

If it’s his crew, he can do it. There’s no way they can’t.

_See, Sabo, this is how I’ve grown up! You’d be proud, I'm sure!_

He wants these days to continue on and on. He’s likes living like this, alongside them. Every day is even more fun than the last, something he had been looking forward to since Ace left on a ship of his own, and even before then.

He likes being free.

* * *

Since he saw Ace, he’s found a few more crew members. He’s not quite at the ten he wants yet, but he’ll get there. They lost the Going Merry, but devastation and pit-sinking pain disperses just a bit when they remember, remember that she saved them when the World had its guns and swords on their tails. Her spirit lives on, and they can feel her around them on their new ship that Franky built them, the Thousand Sunny!

And, at long last they find a musician, in the marrow of a living skeleton named Brook. Once upon a time, some-odd fifty years prior, he was a Rumbar Pirate, and knew a whale named Laboon, who happens to be alive and waiting, and a friend of the Straw Hat’s too.

“We promised Laboon we’d see him again too! He’s been waiting all these years because he believed you’d be back, Brook!”

Luffy smiles while he says this, kicking his feet as lays atop Brook’s piano. And Brook cries, he cries even though he doesn’t have eyes, he cries even though he’s all dry, dead bones. Brook joins with the greatest gratitude, and they celebrate it by again singing along to the song that’s always been Brook’s favorite, _Binks’ Sake_. Luffy loves that song too, because he learned from Shanks, because he sang it with his brothers.

When they prepare to depart from Thriller Bark to head towards their next location, Luffy hums happily, and takes out the paper Ace gave him when he’s prompted to by Nami. Lola, a new friend Nami made, who’s handing them a Vivre Card of her own possession as thanks, expresses concern, since the edges look to be burning, the paper’s getting smaller.

“I’m not worried. Ace’d be mad at me if I rushed over to him,” Luffy says, “So he’ll be fine.”

This comes in the memory of when they were younger, and Luffy cried so, so hard when he thought Ace had died back then. Ace had punched him, so hard it hurt, telling him now to kill him off like that. Ace is amazing and really strong, so he’ll recover from whatever’s making the edges of that paper burn a little.

He promised not to die, after all. They’re supposed to live and achieve their dreams and be free, free for themselves, and for the one that couldn’t be.

* * *

The majority of them are still getting used to having a skeleton for a crew mate around, except Luffy thinks Brook is really cool. Usopp might still be a little scared in the middle of the night when he wakes up and realizes very quickly that Brook is there, and very much not asleep, or _dead_ , but that’s just funny. 

“We really are just a group of misfits,” he hears Nami laugh one day, “and our captain really doesn’t think everything through,” she looks at him and smiles, “but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Suddenly, she’s on her feet, an idea hitting her after examining Brook for a moment.

“Hey, Brook. I have something to ask you. A favor, actually.”

Brook stands up as straight as possible when he hears this, and nods, listening as well as a man with no ears can.

Nami’s smile is almost devious, which causes a tinge of curiosity for the skeleton on just what might be hidden in it. Perhaps she is prodding for the future too? “Could you… hide a few important things for me? Just keep them in that skull of yours.”

And she sounds kind when she asks it.

“Oh my… I can’t refuse a request like that from a young lady! My brain’s a solid secret keeper, yohohoho! Only a cracked skull would spill it—!” Brook takes off his hat and bows his head, and then debates how they should go about this. She’s tiny compared to him, so should he pull out a chair for her? Should he bend down? Nami shakes her head, and motions for him to sit, pretty firmly. So sit down he does, and that’s the way Nami can have an easier time reaching everything.

Franky and Robin hear Brook’s jokes, and Robin stares, stares with a slight smile. Franky ticks, but Robin puts her hand out and halts him. _He’s already dead_ , she reminds him. Franky decides to push it off, and then goes back up on deck to double check on the Sunny’s outer status. Zoro’s doing well to sleep through the commotion in the boy’s quarters, likely due to his injuries.

Luffy’s excited, laughing in the background, but soon his interest in Nami’s conversation is pique, so he runs over to see what’s going on.

Nami fishes through a box, and recovers a book, as well as some notes.

“The notes are mine and Robin’s, but the book is umm… let’s just say it’s important to Luffy.”

Luffy stretches out his neck to examine the old, beat-up book and then grins, “So that’s what Ace handed to you back then! This is the book Ace held onto for a while. I drew a bunch in it, because the pictures felt lonely.”

Come to think of it, he hasn’t looked at it in such a long time. Ever since just before Ace took off with it. He snatches it out of Nami’s hands, which causes her to sigh loudly as she then follows through with at least putting the notes she has into Brook’s skull.

“Yeah, see, this is me, Ace, and Sabo!” Luffy laughs, “This book used to belong to Sabo, but he left it behind.”

Luffy doesn’t talk much about Sabo, and Nami knows why. Same with Robin. Both of them have long listened to Luffy’s stories that he’d suddenly spurt while they were reading him something else, something that increased after Ace came back into the picture.

“Right, there’s writing in the back. Ace never read it to me.”

Nami peers over, since it’s about time she takes it back and put it up anyway, and reads it aloud to him.

Luffy looks down for a moment, but his grin grows back once again, “Yeah, they’re the best brothers!”

“Captain Luffy..! Miss Nami..! The both of you get along so well! You all do! I’m so glad to be part of this crew!” Brook interrupts.

“Shishishi! Happy to have you, Brook!”

Later on, Luffy finds Robin sitting alone, reading. He thinks about the time, only briefly, before deciding that he wants to talk to her now. His attention really does go wherever it wants to.

“Robin! We finally have a musician! Brook’s so cool!”

Luffy remembers hearing something about Sanji having to boost up the calcium for Brook’s meals, and Franky said that beefing it up _would_ be the _super_ best, and so Luffy didn’t get it, but immediately wanted Sanji to cook him some meat.

He got kicked out of the kitchen right after, but seeing Robin made his mind jump back.

“Yes, things are lively,” Robin says, “I hope he doesn’t dance to dust.”

Luffy laughs.

“Hey, Robin, could you read me that one story again?”

“Of course.” Robin answers, nodding, and she turns her head to see Chopper and Usopp peering in, “you both are more than welcome as well.”

Chopper dashes over and Usopp looks excited, and relieved, as he walks over to sit down next to Luffy. Robin picks up the book, and begins reading. A tale of giants and forests and stars and adventures. It’s a popular book, she thinks, and a fun story for a child. Two of them can easily read it themselves, but they all seem to like to hear her read it. Mid-story, Chopper crawls up onto Usopp’s shoulder to be closer.

Soon, Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper are asleep. Chopper’s on top of Usopp’s throat, and Usopp’s fallen over onto Luffy’s stomach. Robin laughs to herself, scoops up Chopper, and uses her Flower-Flower Fruit powers to at least move them to the boy’s quarters. She knocks and sees a tired Sanji open the door. Oh? Zoro and Franky must be snoring. His energy picks up once he lays eyes on Robin, and he picks up Usopp and Luffy and carries them deeper in.

That night, Luffy dreams. He dreams of familiar words and times of long ago, where stories came and went and fun was indefinitely had.

 

> “ _Luffy, you fell asleep during the story about Ace last night!”_
> 
> _“I did?”_
> 
> _“You did!’_
> 
> _“Hey, Sabo, just what were you telling him about me?”_
> 
> _“Definitely **not** something embarrassing.”_
> 
> _“Alright, that’s it, sparring comes early today! You and me are up first, Sabo!”_
> 
> _“Huh? No, I wanna go first! Fight me, Ace!_
> 
> “ _Nope, Sabo’s turn.”_
> 
> _“Aww…”_
> 
> _“Don’t worry, Luffy, Ace and I can beat you a bunch afterwards!”_
> 
> _“Hey! No, I’m gonna beat you!”_
> 
> _“Like to see ya try that, with those rubber arms of yours.”_

It’s pleasant, nostalgic, and but it doesn’t make him sad. Not really. He’s got it in his head there, too, that the future holds friends and fun and he can spar and adventure with those new people.

Luffy wakes up later than the light does the next morning, which is fine since there’s still a few more days at sea before they reach the next island at least. It would have been nice to sit up on the front of the Sunny and watch the sunrise, but he can do that another day. There are plenty of them! He reaches up and loosens his joints and realizes he’s back in his bed, and not out in the common room, but that’s fine. He jumps up and hurries on deck and finds that Brook and Franky are now getting along very well!

The story goes that Franky was showing Usopp a new modification, and Brook ended up _super_ impressed that his words turned to song and Franky joined right in! So now Brook’s super alright in Franky’s book. Luffy’s sad he missed the beginning of the fun, but he’s immediately caught up in the rest of the moment that he discards the worry right away.

* * *

They’re separated. He couldn’t save his friends and now they’re separated. He’s got to get a ship, and find them.  

Yet, what circles becomes even worse. He may have the good side of one of the Warlords, Boa Hancock, now, and that’s the only hope he has for what he learns next.

Not only does he not know where his friends are, but his brother, Ace, is imprisoned in Impel Down, and there’s a promised day for his execution. _Sorry guys, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. I have to save Ace_.

Putting off returning to where he and his precious crew promised to meet is just something that must be. They’ll understand. Sure, Ace might get mad at him, but Luffy can’t turn away from this.

He’s already lost Sabo. He doesn’t want to lose Ace too.

_Sabo, don’t worry! I’m gonna save Ace!_

He turns the impossible into the possible with his prison break in _and_ break out. He meets old enemies like Buggy and Crocodile, and a new friend – Jinbe – too, but Ace has already been moved to Marineford. So it’s off to there he goes.

He gets close. He sees Ace up on that pillar, and he chases the shadow of it to the sun. But it begins to set. The sun is so close but it’s setting. The warmth is so nearby, but the moon is coming out to chill the night.

In the battle, when the chains fall, he feels relieved, feeling the heat of Ace’s fire at his back, by his side. That’s his older brother, strong and capable in all his glory, and it’s finally time for this little brother to get him away from danger. The ship’s right there, safety’s right there, but the World spits on their faces and tells them that the curse is too powerful.

The Vivre Card turns to ash in an instant, but Ace, Ace is still breathing. That smile, those words, no, no, no, it can’t be. Ace just needs a doctor. Ace is going live. He’ll live and he’ll be free and they can spar like the good old days. He’ll steal food of Ace’s plate and Ace’ll pinch and pull his cheek and they’ll laugh it all away.

Luffy’ll introduce Ace to Robin, to the cyborg Franky, and to the skeleton musician, Brook, and to the Sunny too! They’ll have a party! A party to commemorate Ace’s rescue, and they’ll feast on Sanji’s cooking and sing to Brook’s music, and then they may or may not fall asleep right there on the floor

 “You promised you wouldn’t die!!”

 If only Chopper was here. Chopper would know what to do. Chopper’s the best doctor.

If only his friends were here.

Because he… he…

…in spite of being surrounded by all these people who had helped him, who had been fighting for his brother as much as he had been, he…

He’s all alone!

“ ** _ACE!!_** ”

He’s broken, broken. His mind isn’t processing anything anymore. There are no more tears from him, because his brain can’t even make them fall. Ace is dead. Ace is dead. Ace is dead.

He had been so warm but now he’s so cold. He’s smiling, but he’s not moving.

He loves Ace, who’s one of the best big brothers he could have asked for. He loves Ace, who’s been there for him ever since he was stubborn and small and weak. He loves Ace, whose existence was needed.

Of course Ace should have been born! Ace is Ace!

 _First… Sabo and now… **now**_ …

It takes him so much time to wake, and he’s still so broken. They got him out of Marineford, Trafalgar Law saved him, and now he’s back on Amazon Lily. But he… he’s in darkness, and all he sees is Ace’s back. It’s injured, burnt so much that he can’t even make out the tattoo on his back.

“I’m still so weak!”

He yells, pounding against the floor, but it leaves no disrupted dirt. Nothing moves. He doesn’t have the strength.

“Ace is dead!” He declares through his tears, and to the ground the boy falls, remembering the warmth of his brother, even seconds before his eyes closed. It’s ingrained, that smile, that friendly, elder brother smile, the one he used to furrow away, and then roughly pat his head with, the one that made him so _him_.

All that and his bloodied back, the tears and the last smile.

He wanted his friends to meet him again, he thinks again, he knows Ace was dedicated to his own crew, so making him join his was a no-go, but he wanted Ace to meet all his friends, past the ones he had already met.

_Maybe he could have sparred with Zoro too… He could have told Nami more about that book and how Sabo got it… he could have listened to Usopp’s tales… ate Sanji’s cooking… he… my…_

His friends... that’s right. He still has his friends!

“My crew! My friends!!” Luffy shouts, “I want to see them! They… They’re all I have left! Zoro! Nami! Usopp! Sanji! Chopper! Robin! Franky! Brook! I… I…! I miss them!”

They promised, promised they’d meet again, but Jinbe intervenes, tells him that he can’t go yet. If he doesn’t want history to repeat itself, then he has to get stronger.

Take two years, and come back to them stronger, and _charge forward_ toward his dreams, towards all of their dreams.

For the life Ace let him keep.

* * *

Luffy is now nineteen, and stronger than ever. It’s been two years and he’s so ready to see his friends. He misses them, he misses them so much! He can’t wait to get back on the seas, to look up above as the clouds move above them and part so that he can see the brightest light there is.

He’s sure they’ve all spent the last two years looking at the same sky too.

“Everyone!”

They’ve all gotten stronger; he can feel it in the air, in this eyes, and on the Sunny, he cries, he cries and pulls them into a hug, all of them at once, with his long, long rubber arms. They’re all here; they’re all alive, so he’s not alone!

They’re all warm and close, and they all tell that they’ve missed their selfish, reckless captain too.

It’s on toward the New World they go! Brook, the _Soul King_ , whose popularity surely will follow him, strums up his guitar and sings, sings with the tears of reunion in his black holes. He’s been through plenty, but he’s kept his promise and kept that book and those notes safe these years too. It’s part of his memories of being part of the crew. That’s why he also greets this new voyage with a song, for his friends to hear and feel it right down to _their_ bones!

Luffy’s glad he can hear this music again too!

“For the New World~!” He sings, and they all look forward. Their new skills and powers in their hands, their brains, their bodies, their souls. They’re all firm on this. Luffy’s alright and ready to charge forward and it’s the job of the crew of the future Pirate King to stand firm and steady and support him, no matter how stupid he gets.

Once Luffy’s decided something, he’s going for it.

“For the New World~!” Where new alliances and friendships are born, where the World will learn his name all over again, and he will never-ever be forgotten by it.

“For the New World~!” Back in action, it’s Straw Hat Luffy and his crew! They’ve been longing for the open sea and itching for fight. The World’s going to feel the change in the waters again!

“Where our dreams will all come true~!”

* * *

 His Haki has to recharge, so he crashes, and heaves out the tension of his chest. Just ten minutes. That’s all he needs. Ten more minutes and he can beat Doflamingo _and_ help _Traffy_ and _Rebecca_ and _all_ of Dressrosa. He’s already come pretty far from when they entered the New World, so why would _this guy_ stop him?

There’s so much motivation behind this, and energy that pulses through. He got some of the best news ever on this island, _and_ he has friends here, too, so he’s not going to let _Mingo_ bring anymore ruin to this place.

Footsteps. Simply footsteps. Earlier, he bawled, he bawled so much that his words were intelligible and he confused his friends. He had been fighting to get Ace’s power from the hands of everyone that absolutely couldn’t have it. But then surprise hit and then… _Sabo..!_

“I’ll keep them off of you, Luffy,” Sabo says, and Luffy grins the best he can. “So focus on recovering.”

When the memories of tears are shed, when he looks up amidst this battle, and he sees his brother’s flames, he sees a shadow of them _both_. He thought he had lost both of them. But the World didn’t actually get that over on him. It told him such a nasty lie, one that Usopp would never tell, because _they’re_ actually right here with him.

Yeah, Ace is dead. But his warmth is still here, helping him recover, and his will is in the right hands, inherited by the one Ace would have welcomed the most. So Luffy, Luffy can’t die here. There’s too much at stake, too many people that need him. He has to get everything together, so he can keep his crew and his brother and all his new allies alive.

He doesn’t have more time to cry about it, but Sabo is _alive_! Free in the seas, just like he wanted. So Luffy’s going to protect that discovery, and not let the World pry this from his fingers. _I’m not… a weak little brother anymore!_

Sabo glances back, smiles, and uses the fire to strike a foe quick. He’s adjusting fast to the _Flame-Flame Fruit_ , as expected of him. More than deserving, more than worthy, there’s no one else.

Why, Luffy feels even stronger!

He’ll beat this _Warlord_. He’ll rejoin his crew, and set sail again.

He’ll definitely become the Pirate King!

Thanks to those in his life. Thanks to his _family_.

He does it. Just like he finishes, with fiery fuel behind him that the worst in these planes have to squint at. And all that know see it, what once would have been a guided punch, is watched over with pride, by his older brothers.

* * *

“Eh? Robin? Was Sabo here?” Luffy wakes up and Usopp’s legs fall over and off him, but he’ll be fine, and that fact doesn’t faze Luffy in the slightest anyway.

“He already went ahead, Luffy.”

“Really? I didn’t even get to say that I’ll see him again later!” Luffy frowns, but his smile comes back soon, wide and proud. He feels like Sabo still patted him on the head and wished him well, and promised that they’d see each other again anyway. “I’m really glad he’s alive!”

Robin can tell. Their captain is a fascinating person, with so many known names behind him, and he’s very clear with this sort of thing. Sabo and him are so very much alike. She learned that well from the two years she spent alongside the Sabo and the Revolutionary Army, and she also sees it now.

They truly are brothers.

“Haha, he’s glad you are too. I think I have some more stories to tell you of my two years away, if you’d like to hear them. I’m sure they’ll interest you.”

“Yeah!”

He’ll go on, go on to know that Ace’s name reached farther, and farther than even he could have known at first. Even in a country closed from the world, Ace’s warmth reached hearts, and inspired the best in the smallest of lights.

Luffy’s going to keep marching straight on forward, and live! Free as a bird, brilliant as a thousand suns, inspiring all, combating the World’s ever encroaching darkness.

The oceans all connect somewhere, and so does the sky.

Watch out, _W_ _orld_! The Straw Hat Crew… the Straw Hat _Family_ isn’t going to stop, even when they’ve sailed them all!

_In life, in death, the ends of seas will echo his name! He is one of three brothers, sworn over forever bonds and sake. Known as ‘Straw Hat’ by the masses, he is Monkey D. Luffy!_


	3. Side Sabo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sworn brothers are brothers, regardless of it they can see each other._
> 
> Even if the memories are wiped away, the feelings of ties keep the flames alive. He is the first to set sail, first to go silent, and one to come back. He is the one with freedom on his mind, with a fondness of the sun and the sea. Though his past is unstrung, he presses forward, wishing the world to be kinder, happier. 
> 
> That Revolutionary over there, the one with the blond hair, doesn't he look like Straw Hat Luffy? Doesn't he have the same vibe as Fire Fist Ace? From the city, mountains, and beaches of Goa, there's a rumor. Haven't you heard it? Just like those two pirates, he's a troublesome man!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sabo, looking out at the sun, an translucent visage of Ace appears, Mufasa from Lion King style, _Sabo, remember who you are, end_
> 
> I am sad
> 
> ahem, anyway, Sabo is next ! Sworn refers very well to Sabo’s loyalty, to the revolutionaries, of course, but also to Luffy’s livelihood and his dream, and to Ace’s memories. These push him forward in what certainly are such horribly heart crushing times. His grief is so heavy… He’s got amnesia for ten years and what brings back his memories is the image of his brother with the headline that he is dead, killed in front of their other brother, and just

_Sworn brothers are brothers, regardless of it they can see each other._

_These words are tucked deeply into the folds of their brains. It’s a part of their very core. Even if the slate is thought to be wiped clean, nothing changes the bonds that deeply rooted, the feelings that have been treasured so._

_There’s no helping it if they barrel around, in order to set what they want straight, in order to put into practice an oath renewed. It’s just them, the ones who put their hopes in seeing the world brighter, happier._

_They’re all the same, those troublesome brothers._

Illusion. Illusion after illusion plagues him, and he feels fuzzy, dizzy, until these oddly _familiar_ images can pass. He doesn’t know why he feels a mix of nostalgia and pain when they appear, and there’s no answer if he asks them anything, because they aren’t real. Not here. But it hurts, hurts to see them. What are these phantoms that haunt him? _Who_ are they?

And why, why do his dreams add him, as a child, to it?

No faces, just laughter. Words come jumbled, ceasing before names. They leave him happy, but terribly lonely, as though there’s a missing piece that refuses to find its way home, as though they are beckoning, prying at his mind and trying to loosen a lock whose key is lost at the bottom of the seafloor. The answers elude him; the flame is just out of reach.

_Let me have it. If I’m burned for what must be precious… If I can just know that th—_

“..!”

What was that thought?

Only the lingering sense of homely belonging, of a different variety, is left in its wake.

Closing his eyes doesn’t allow him to keep their visages and study them. They are gone just as quickly as they came. All he can do is press on with the loyalty he has sworn to the man who saved him, and the revolution whose call strikes him, and wonder.

 _Wonder_ about where he came from, why he felt so _deeply_ that he couldn’t go back.

Ten years of empty patches, of muffled voices, of fighting.

It feels like no time, but a lot of it all the same. He becomes the Revolutionary Army’s Chief of Staff, the big number two in the entry organization, but that doesn’t stop him from looking out the windows towards the water sometimes, and get lost in thinking about the winds, the waters, like it was once a dream.

One day, his attention is garnered not by the tide, but by Dragon staring down a piece of paper. Is that a smile, or are Sabo’s eyes once again playing tricks on him? Before he can say anything, the sheet is folded away _just so_ , and that’s the end of that. There’s no questioning the action, no digging into that affair.

So again, he looks back out, and then grabs his pipe, and practices until it’s time to again act.

Their enemies are Marines, the World Government, any grimy hands that oppress the masses, not pirates as a general. Deep down, Sabo questions about what’d be like to live on a ship in the sea, to visit _even_ more places, to have so many countless adventures that aren’t limited to maps of people desperately calling. Where do these _unconscious_ _desires_ come from? He stuffs them down, for he really is too devoted to the freeing everyone from the World’s clutches to leave. He knows this. He won’t leave.

He swears it.

Even still, it’s noticeable to those around him that he’s particularly fond of the sea breeze. When they take a ship to their destination, he’s right on deck, watching the ripples cause parts in the water flow. On one of these ventures, there comes a day where he starts humming a tune no one knew he knew.

“Hey, where’d you learn that one?”

“That… what?”

“That _song!_ ”

“I…” Sabo stops, thinking, but he draws blanks. He didn’t even realize he had been singing or anything of the sort! “I don’t remember!” And he smiles, laughing, as if he’s proud of this. Really, he could have picked it up from _anywhere_ , but it feels… special to him.

“Well,” Koala sighs, figuring that’s just him, and it’s got something to do with either the part he can’t recall, if it’s something _so_ ingrained like that. Or maybe it’s from one of those _side trips_ he likes to make. “If you sing it against, try not to sound so lonely! We’re here, you know?”

“Lonely… Right! I think an upbeat tempo would sort of a sort of song to pass the time better!”

“Mm, I think so too. Let’s continue to work on the right path!”

A little music doesn’t hurt. That seems to be the sentiment that passes by. It remains with them, too, through every trip they take henceforth. If there were lyrics to this song, Sabo surely doesn’t know them. It appears that some of the others might know, but Sabo never notices if they mean to say anything. Maybe even Koala means to add something more, but she instead, sometimes, simply joins in the melody.

After all, if that’s the forward he chooses, then who are they to interrupt? Not when it’s not bothering them, not when it brings strength and camaraderie aboard, even more. Every time this lyric-less shanty plays to him, his attention goes from the ocean, to the sky, way up to the sun and stars.

“What a treasure,” he whispers, and thanks the air for being so fresh to fill his lungs, and the weather for being so kind as to give him this sight.

* * *

Months pass and the seas feel tense. Sabo crosses his legs, putting his hat atop one of his knees, and leans back. His log book is beside him, just having finished a reread over it.  

“Hack, what does the paper say?”

“A war is coming to the foot of Marineford itself,” Hack answers, “and an old friend of mine is imprisoned for refusing to act in it.”

Perhaps he would have seen the name of the center of the war if he chose to look at the paper himself. Perhaps even that would have been enough to jog the gears and pick the cogs up to a stepping stone, slamming that lost key of rubber and fire into the rusty keyhole, releasing the trapped memories.

But, by the time he has a chance to look, he only manages to read about Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors of the New World, and his crew being the ones who are likely to be the main opponents of the Marines at their base. In ill timing, he’s called away before he can discover why.

Would it have made a difference?

The _promised day_ soon turns to be on the horizon, and surely a Visual Transponder Snail would snow them the truth, if they would be so inclined to look. Some will listen, others will be sent out to help the crowds of citizens who don’t know what will happen next. What if the Marine’s front becomes a wasteland? What if the _pirates_ that have been all sorts of ways entered into their lives fall? Who will emerge?

The World is watching; it is dictating.

_Marineford. That’s where the world will see change. For better or worse. It will be freedom’s time to strike, so the opportunity must not pass._

“Sabo, don’t you _dare_ just run off for your selfish ideas. You have a responsi—”

“Yes, yes, I understand, Koala.”

“You obviously don’t!”

He doesn’t know why, why he wants to go there. Why he wants to throw himself in the fray. There’s something screaming from within him that says he should move, go, forward. A glimpse? A gut instinct? There’s no way he’d know the subjects of this war, personally, and waltzing right into the World Government’s eyes isn’t ideal. They don’t need to incline the wrong direct wrath until the correct moment comes.

Now when the unrest will cast people awry. It’s the Revolution’s promise to be there, and liberate.

And yet, he stands, teeters upon the edge, deliberating, until Koala squeezes his arm, harshly, firmly. Back to reality, back to a concerned swirl.

“Right,” he answers her, and he sees relief cross her face. He’s not going to be so reckless, _this time_.

* * *

 It doesn’t take long, no long at all, for the news to surface, for what _happened_ at that location to be all revealed.

_Fire Fist Ace is dead!_

So the headline reads, and all is caught in his throat as his peers talk and talk, and it jabs and jabs until he can see nothing else but that picture. And the _tears_? His tears, they fall, and fall, and fall, and he wails. Those choking sobs develop into wails, broken wails that confuse and rush the entire room. His vision tunnels, blurs, all the reaches his ears from then on is a voice, severed, that slowly, slowly becomes louder, clearer, until it’s echoing, so loudly that it hurts.

_Hear that, Sabo, Luffy! Everyone’s gonna know **my** name! Hate me all they like, they’ll still know that I’m—_

“My… bro… ther…!!!” Gasping, howling, no one can make it out. There are shouts, hurried clatters of feet. He’s acting weird; he’s breathing oddly. The key is slammed into him and the gates open widely, and it’s so _hot_. Everything comes flying in shards, and they stab him all over. His heart is racing and sinking, simultaneously. It hurts. It hurts, _hurts_ , **_hurts_**!

“Ace!!!”

Lighter and lighter his head gets, and yet still he stains the article, the photo of him, with these thick, endless tears.

Is it his legs that give out first? Or is it his back? His consciousness? It hardly matters, when the result would be the same, a weakened man, whose fragmented past is back, and it’s haunting. Devastating. Too late. Lost before remembered, ripped away once the grin was back.

For three days, he doesn’t wake up. With each one that passes, wrinkles of worry press into the faces of the other revolutionaries. For him, at first, he is trapped, within a nightmare that he’s too shattered to fight off. It’s dark, and all he sees is Ace’s back, a hole in it, wide and burned, and Luffy’s crushed expression. And Sabo? Sabo is _burning_ , burning _coldly_.

Let it break. Let his brain piece together the memories and let him relieve them, no matter how brief. Those knee-scraping days and the face that he would have done anything for them, his greatest treasure. _Even give up his very own dream_. When they _needed_ him the most, he wasn’t there.

_I said we’d meet again. Now I… I…_

He should have gone. Even if there had been no _conscious_ or stated reason then, he should have gone. Maybe those ten years would have come rushing back to him, and he could have been able to _save_ him. _Save_ him so _their_ world would have lost him, so _that_  World couldn’t have taken them. Even if he remembered afterwards them, he still could have followed his conviction, and freed a captive from the chains that needn’t be.

Those flames on that one beach, the trip to Marineford he didn’t make, these were paths not taken, chances missed. How did he not see those bounty posters? The names? Was it because of work? The World?

_Luffy, are you all right now? Did you live?_

_I haven’t… lost you too, have I? Now that I remember… Remember what we shared…_

What could have been going through Ace’s mind then? What about Luffy?

His eyes open, and he gasps for air. His body, still riddled in shock, fatigue, sleep, doesn’t jolt when his head does. Time. It takes time for his sight to readjust to how light it is. The sun is peaking in through the window, and that too pains his very soul.

_“I think I like the sun better! It’s a lot warmer, and a lot brighter. Doesn’t it shine with life?”_

_“Yeah, yeah, I get it!”_

It replays. Suck a simple conversation. But it just keeps repeating itself. Now he’s aware, aware of those children, why he was with them, why everything felt so natural, but so twisted in sorrow at the same time. And those small words, they were part of just one of many exchanges he had.

His brothers, Ace and Luffy, that’s who they are.

“S-Sabo!”

He tries to steady himself back in reality and Koala is at his side. It looks like she’s just run into the room, likely having heard him wake. He’s worried her, as usual, but on a much, much larger scale.

“You..! Thank goodness… You surprised us all, like that! You were out for three days! Three—”

“—Koala, could I tell you a story?”

“—days…” She finishes her sentence, deflating briefly from the interruption, but she’s bound back up because she’s knows it’s him, and that much is back. That much is still here. “Go for it!”

“Thank you,” Sabo says. He sees the tears in the corners of her eyes. She’s strong, so she’ll smile in spite of it, but that’s fear. _Don’t worry. I know now. But I still won’t leave this place_. “When I was younger, I wanted to be a pirate. I wanted to be free, and write a book about all my adventures. I shared my pirating dreams with two others, and we…”

_Don’t push yourself too hard._

“…we swore an oath of brotherhood.”

* * *

 It is unbelievable much tension leaves his body, to everyone around him, once he sees the news that Luffy’s alive. It’s to be said that he cried again. He can’t meet Luffy now, but he’s alive, and he’s still standing, still moving, still acting. He’s become a shaker of the world around him, he’s learned through his sifting through of old papers, and that, in itself, is amazing!

His little brother’s really grown up!

The news also reports that his boss, the man that saved and raised him, happens to be Luffy’s real father, and Sabo tips his hat to fate for that. _I really was so close to knowing about him again, without realizing it…_  

Thanks to their work in freeing a group of slaves, another new face soon walks through their door – the _Light_ of their cause, some would claim: Nico Robin. Sabo finds that she, also, is a member of Luffy’s very crew.

Robin tells them that she has two years before she must return to the ship she is meant to be on. And very well will those two years be spent.

Once he is back on his feet, more so recovered from the shock than not, he spends his free time working through his grief by looking at what he didn’t before, by getting to know who they had become. It takes time, and he’s grateful, grateful to how patient those are around him.

“Ah, Robin,” Sabo says, as she walks over to sit at the same table as him one day while he’s reading.  

“Sabo,” she looks gently towards Ace’s picture, as well as the rest of what lays on the table: newspapers, bounty posters, and his log book. “I’ve heard stories about the both of you from our captain.”

“Haha, is that so?”

“Yes,” Robin nods, “I’d read to Luffy, and he’d exchange it by saying what it reminded him of.” She gives a light laugh, “His past really is fascinating. Tied to so many important names…”

Sabo sees the fondness in her too, this woman who has been through so much, who truly believe, in gratitude, that meeting his younger brother and the crew that followed him, was the best case for her. From what he’s heard, and what he recalls, that sounds right. Luffy has a way of growing on someone like no other.

“I never would have imagined I’d be meeting another person who’s risen from the grave, but it’s very fun,” and she smiles calmly as she says this. “He’ll be overjoyed to know you’re alive.”

_“I’m glad to have met him, and the other. So I have to get stronger for the family I am a part of. Thank you for taking me in.”_

She’s alive, and free, today because of Luffy, Sabo reflects. He declared war on the World for her, and refused to run away. And she has so many stories to tell him that he couldn’t get from a newspaper. With each word, his heart grows bigger and bigger, alongside his grin. It’s undeniable, how much pride is being fostered in him.

Even still, every night he dreams about the what ifs. What if he had remembered them, and rescued Ace? Then they could have caught up, properly, they could have visited Dadan and renewed their swear of brotherhood over shared cups of sake that they definitely stole from her again.

And in rays of the brightest star in the sky, he sees Ace.

“Ace, did you find your place in this world, the one you could accept?” Sabo asks the sun, “Because your life, you being born, was worth plenty to so many.”

Sabo’s already strong, but he has to get stronger. There’s a chance that Devil Fruit Ace once had will show up again, and if he can get it, he will. He has to grow even more, because there’s someone he has to protect, someone who’s growing more and more and gaining even bigger enemies, and even if he _does_ have a capable crew, more than, really, he’s a very concerned older brother who absolutely, _absolutely_ can’t lose him.

If Luffy’s gotten this far, and he’s going to be out of the spotlight for a long time, he’s definitely coming back with a fiery _bang!_

“Robin, a request.”

“Yes?”

They’ll be caught up in the World’s whirlpool when they return, Sabo knows, so to add him being alive when he can’t see him immediately to the mix wouldn’t be fair to him. That and he wants to see his brother for who he is now. Anything to bog that down, why that wouldn’t do.  

“Don’t tell him about me. Or that you met me. I want to surprise him.”

* * *

 Two years have finally passed, and the Straw Hats are back in action! The rumors about Robin are concerning, but Sabo has a feeling things are fine. Luffy wouldn’t let one of his crew mates slip away when they’re so close, _especially_ after everything.

He removes his gloves for a moment, so that he can feel each and every little imperfection in the sake cups he brought to leave there, so that he can be closer to _him_.

“The air feels warm. Almost like you’re here,” he laughs, in spite of the sharpness in his chest. Before this grace, he can almost see Ace’s image, and with a motion, he greets him, telling him something very, _very_ important. Or maybe it’s a jab about being soft. If only he could hear his voice too. How he should have liked to meet him again, properly.

He swears upon those cups and upon his past, that he’ll not let just anyone take Ace’s power. He’ll be the one to carry it forward.

“Hey, Ace.”

He lets the wind settle.

“Thanks for watching over him, until the very end.”

A deep breath.

“Now it’s my turn again. I’ll make sure he lives on, and I see him through to the finish line. He’s got a dream to be a king after all, the Pirate King!” Sabo shakes his head, “It sounded so crazy back then that it was funny. He was weak and cried and clung to us so much, but it sounds real now. So I’ve got to be there for him, for the both of us.”

Ah, he’s going to cry again, isn’t he?

He sure it. The tears start flowing. Talking to his brother after so many years, and it’s like _this_.

For a moment, he turns to face Whitebeard’s grave, “And… Whitebeard, yes, that’s what the people knew you as, thank you, for giving Ace a home, for fighting so hard for him.

“Thank you for caring about him.”

It makes him so happy, to know that his brother’s fame wasn’t just the number of his bounty, but it settled in the hearts of others, and they _loved_ him so much that they risked their lives to get him back. Just as he would have done.

“Ace,” he shifts back, “I’ve managed to go back, and look at what I’ve missed. Well, what I could find of it,” he speaks through these blurring eyes and shaking voice well, “You had _fire!_ Ace, you really did it! You were warm and bright, and the World couldn’t hide _your_ name.”

_Just like the sun!_

_Yeah, the sun…_

_Ace, will I be able to be as bright as you?_

_You weren’t someone disposable. You were… **are** important. Thank you for being part of my life._

He reaches over to the grave, and pins upon it the news of the Straw Hat’s comeback.

“Look at him now, Ace. He’s _alive_ , and back.” Ace didn’t run away, didn’t let his back leave Luffy. In the end, he was the big brother he had been for so long. “His crew is back and they’re stronger than ever!”

“I’m so proud of him. I’m… proud of both of you! You both followed through, and became pirates, just like we dreamed of becoming.”

He chooses to take a sip from one of the sake cups, and then he continues, “I’ll be going soon, but I’m planning on writing again. I want to come to visit you again too…”

Yes, it’s time to go. Back on go his gloves, and he stands, turning away from the grave of his fallen brother, with a fleeting lift of lingering. He wipes around his eyes, and knows he must go forward. Luffy’s waiting. The cause is waiting. His determination is up and high. On his way out, he looks up at the sky, and hums the tune of the song they once sang together, the melody that’s always stuck with him, revived, the source known.

> _“Robin, one more question.”_
> 
> _“What is it, Sabo?”_
> 
> _“There was a song…”_
> 
> _“Ah, that one. Yes, it’s an old, popular shanty. Luffy and Brook both love it, so Luffy has him play it quite often. It’s called Binks’ Sake.”_  

He thinks on that conversation with Robin, too, and decides that it’d be fun if he can one day hear Luffy’s always coveted ship musician (who’s a _skeleton!_ ) play the song, and he’d get to sing along too! He wants to meet Luffy’s whole crew one day, and thank them all.

“Yohohoho~”

The next stage is Dressrosa. That’s where the Revolutionary Army will be going, to deal with the underworld’s arms trade. If he’s lucky, following his brother’s current course… then, maybe, Luffy will be there too.

* * *

 They arrive, and it doesn’t take long to assess the situation. He hears, hears the races of the unrest, the words that fall so much like back in Goa, and he learns, learns of the tournament for a precious power.

Ace’s power is here; here in a colosseum tournament. Hack ends up entering it, so that Sabo can stay free to do the rest of the job in the meantime. But they all know that things are too easily distracted when it comes to Sabo’s attention.

Sabo sees, sees someone familiar within the contestants, when looking upon the screen. There’s no way he can mistake that face. And he’s gotten so _far_! Here… in Dressrosa! Finally, he’s so close to where _he_ is, and he can’t miss the opportunity. Into the colosseum he manages to sneak, and his approach begins.

“Pardon me, but I’ll be the one to take the Flame-Flame Fruit… Luffy.”

Some green-haired man with Luffy, who sort of looks like a chicken, furrows and fowls, and despite how exciting that is, Sabo’s eyes stay on Luffy.

“My name’s Lucy..!” Luffy, under his disguise, sputters, “And you—!!”

There are no words for the expression that Luffy gives him. It’s a mix of surprise, eye-popping, and a heart-beating _through_ his chest, and the waterworks that well up and flow. Still a crybaby, in the end, Sabo thinks, as Luffy sticks out his rubber arms jumps at him. Of course, _of course_ , Sabo catches him, because why wouldn’t he? Just like when they were younger, but Luffy’s arms are practiced and precise.

“I thought… I fh-ou-ght you, you, dead!!! Sabo!!!”

“I’m here, Luffy! It’s really me!”

And Luffy sobs, he sobs so much that no one can make out his words.

“You have something to do, don’t you?” Luffy nods and Sabo continues, “Then, do I have your permission to win the tournament for Ace’s power?” Another nod. Sabo’s clothes are getting soaked, it seems, and he tightens down the hug. He’s missed him, missed him so much. The reunion has to be brief, but Luffy, he knows now, knows that _he’s alive_!

What better way to go on to win this and inherit the Devil Fruit that Ace once had than to don the outfit Luffy had, and fight forward.

To become stronger. To protect what’s important. For the freedom he’s always so craved.

A signature, a book, memories, legacy.

 _Ace, I’m truly here for him now_. _So don’t worry. You may be going ahead on your journey, but we’ll make sure._

“Fire fist!”

 _We’ll make sure the World never forgets who we are_.

* * *

 Yes, he’s incredibly selfish. But they found the weapons and Sabo now has the flames of the past and the future in his hands.

“Luffy sure makes friends everywhere!” Sabo says, holding up his hand and watching it turn to flames. He’ll have to get used to this power, because he surely isn’t yet. Dodging by habit, attacks that slow and real, he’ll get there. He’ll train and more forward.

He thinks of Luffy’s sleeping face, and the friends that surrounded him. The sloppy, graceless but familiar way him and Usopp were sleeping, the care in the air in that home. A family: His brother’s found such a great family. There are more members, he knows, because he didn’t see the rest that were described on the wanted posters, and by Robin – the cook, the reindeer doctor, the skeleton musician, and the navigator. It’s a shame, but he knows he’ll get to one day.

There will be other opportunities, he’s sure.

He thinks of Luffy’s Vivre Card that sits in his pocket, and swears that it will never burn away.  

“You really are all smiles now.”

Sabo nods, happily.

Time will pass and he’ll no doubt talk more and more about Luffy as he racks up accomplishments. An alliance with that fellow – what was his name? _Tra… Trafa… Traffy!_ Yes, that was it, the now-former warlord, now what an event that caused every bubble in the ocean to pop!

He’s corrected after saying it aloud. It’s Trafalgar Law, but Traffy’s easier to remember, because Luffy called him that too.

On the ship’s deck, he looks out toward the light, shifting his hand to point toward it. His fingers move to the shape of a gun, and with a _Bang!_ he casts off a signal. His signal.

 _He’s got a good crew. Please continue to take care of him, my troublesome brother_.

Night falls, and he sleeps soundly, all the way through, until _that_ dream comes once more. He wakes in a sweat, and climbs back up to see the stars and think it through.

“Whoa! You surprised me! Did you have that dream again?”

Koala says, though her eyes hint at teasing. She thumbs away a stray tear and then pinches his cheek.

“Even if I try to live without regrets, I haven’t been able to - _hey?!_ ”

And to fire he alights, which earns him a jump back and a loud chide from her.

“Don’t be so reckless! You met _him_ again, and I’d say he was doing great! He’s gotten stronger, just like you.”

 _And that fire’s just as bright_.

Even with the distance, even with the passing time, somethings are just so, so ageless.

* * *

 “Hey, look at his new bounty! He’s really grown!”

Sabo can’t contain the pride he’s emitting, for his little brother just keeps showing more and more how his dream is in reach. And it really is then, that he realizes just how similar his picture is to Ace’s. Hands up, smiles on their faces, forward toward the camera.

“We really are brothers!” Sabo exclaims, for all to hear it. And hear it they certainly have. He won’t stop grinning, not at all. _Luffy_ , the **_Fifth Emperor!_** With such an increase in his bounty that the World can’t help but yell his name!

His beam is so bright and his cheeks are spread so widely that his cheeks begin to hurt. It’s the good-sort of stiffness that reaches and influence the lightness of his heart. Everything feels so warm. Those arms, the hugs, his hands.

_Watch over us, Ace._

It all comes back to them, the children, laying in the grass, breathing heavier, satisfied, overjoyed, over an adventure completed, a dash set, and full stomach. He’s going to continue onward.

The Transponder Snail rings. Freedom calls.

“Luffy’s gonna be the Pirate King!”

_In life, in death, the edges of the ocean finally know his name, and his relation. He is one of three brothers, sworn over grasped freedom and sake. Known as a revolutionary to the common folk, his name is Sabo!_


	4. Side Ace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sworn brothers are brothers, even amidst the darkest reaches._
> 
> With a fiery burst, he charges forward, chasing the sun he wants to be, the sort of sun his crew sees him as, the sort of sun his _brothers_ saw him as. The sun he doesn't know he is. 
> 
> To live, or to be validated for the fact he is? To be infamous, or to seize the free sails and winds that come partnered with it? Where is the answer his heart desires? He looks to the flames in his hands, and asks the sky this question, not the World, for the World will simply reject him.
> 
> Reports from Goa _and_ Alabasta shout that Straw Hat Luffy and Fire Fist Ace are _brothers_! No wonder they charge onward, no wonder they're so explosive. They're such dangerous young men... such _troublesome_ brothers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Thank you for loving me.”
> 
> :’)
> 
> guys I am sad. i was sad writing the other parts, of course, but do you ever just, Portgas D. Ace?
> 
> I don’t really have to explain why his lines up. I don’t have the strength to say more than Ace is loved, so so loved.
> 
> Also Ace’s Save My Heart came on while I was typing this and I just, started crying at the end of the song  
> there’s a few things that are clarified in this one that came up in both Luffy and Sabo’s chapters! Since these were worked on simultaneously, I kinda had different aspects of the same scenes in different ones LOL. 
> 
> I have fallen very fast for One Piece and these brothers!

_Sworn brothers are brothers, even amidst the darkest reaches._

_These words are tucked deeply into the folds of their brains. It’s part of their very **core**. Even if the very World threatens to tear this away, they will not be swayed to relinquish the memories that fuel their hearts._

_There’s no helping it if the threats turn to oil, and they crash through the walls that attempt to confine them. It’s just them, the ones that will always carry each other’s words, and faith._

_They’re all the same, those troublesome brothers._

He set sail three years before his younger brother, but he cast off into the sea with a dream all the same. Despite their grandfather’s wishes, he wanted to be a pirate. He wanted to grasp at a chance to fly; to become _his own_ person.

Just like Luffy sees him as.

Just like… Sabo saw him as.

Anger heats his very soul, and doubt chars it, but inside him? That rest vulnerability.

_Should I have been born?_

He looks to the sun, and sun answers him the same way Grandpa Garp had:

 _“Live and find out_.”

Yet, within the sun, he hears another voice, another call. It’s a voice so familiar, that he almost doesn’t want to hear it. It’s encouraging nonetheless, though, so he doesn’t refuse it. He’d regret it if he didn’t, and he doesn’t want to live with regrets.

_“You should have! If you hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have been able to dream the same.”_

He can hear Luffy’s loud, echoing agreement. _Things would be wa~ay different without you, Ace! I’m glad you’re my brother!_

As much as he looked forward to this day, even if he smiled widely and waved for so many moments, it feels different, without his little tag along chasing after him. They’ve been training together for the past seven years. He’ll be alright there, back on Dawn Island, that’s for sure.

Man, he misses him; his dumb, troublesome kid brother.

Now, he’s alone on the sea. Yes, he’s more than capable of going wherever he wants to, wherever the winds and the currents will take him! He’s got to get himself a crew, he decides, a crew that can keep up with someone who’s going to be as loud and as great as him!

Here he comes, the man chasing the blazing sun! Everyone better take note, because his name won’t be something to sweep under the rug anymore!

He’s going to be an ace of the seas!

Humming to pass the time, he’ll make it far. That’s a promise to everything that’s out to get him. That’s a promise, to his brothers too.

* * *

His ship wrecks and he meets a man, who long abandoned his previous name. On this island, it’s survival first, and escape is as difficult as they come. So Ace smiles, and tries to be friends. He calls the man _Masked Deuce_ , and though the name of _that man whose blood he has_ comes up, Deuce eventually comes back around.

A meal of fruit, disgusting in taste but great to two starving, desperate souls, is shared and the two become a crew – the _Spade Pirates_.

Ace’s fists then become vibrant, orange flames, and with a companion by his side and a new raft under them, which they caringly name the _Striker_ , they are back at sea. His smile grows the more _his_ name becomes known. Through clashes and growth, the crew makes it across the harsh ocean of the Grand Line, and they find themselves in the New World.

Ace and the warm fires of his crew ready themselves to tackle even harsher looks. Whitebeard is their target, but Ace requests a detour.

“There’s a guy I gotta find and thank,” he declares, and there’s no fighting back with this captain’s orders.

It’s a chilly island they find who they are scouting for at. Shanks, one of the Emperors of the New World, and the man who saved his little brother, _Red-hair, scar on his face, one arm… yeah, that’s him! I get to say my piece to him, finally_.

He hops over and smiles at him. Glares, hostility, soon fades into laughter.

“Hey, whoa! I’m not here to fight! Shanks, I’m here to thank you. My name’s Ace, and you saved my little brother, Luffy, a long time ago.”

“Well, well, was he taking care of that hat of mine?”

“Said it was important. Dropped it a few times though.”

Shanks laughs, and to this discovery, his crew chooses to party! To Ace, the big brother who’s gotten pretty far! Ace has plans to become even more famous, so he’s going to keep striking at power, but what’s the fun in being all serious, when this is a friendly meeting.

“Yohohoho~ yohohoho~!!” They sing the song Ace also knows all too well, right from the source Luffy learned it from.

_His memory really wasn’t half-bad there!_

He can see why Luffy took a liking to Shanks.

He learns a lot in that short festivity. They all really enjoy the moment; they’re pretty relaxed for being such big names, and like Luffy told him, Yasopp still buzzes about his son.

They _feel_ like freedom.

Will the World allow _his_ light to fight back against the shadow of the man he loathes the name of so? Will the World continue to let _him_ exist? Or are these moments meant to be short, fleeting?

He has a place, but is he any closer to the sun.

His crew hasn’t told him directly, but they think he is. Ace still isn’t sure yet.

* * *

He sits, scarfing down a large plate of food when he notices the newly-pinned bounty posters. One particular face and name stands out to him, and he wastes no time in retrieving it from the board. _It’s him! Hahaha, he’s gone and done it, finally!_

Of course, there’s one person that he’s got to show this to, and fast!

“Thanks for the food!” He shouts and dashes out of the restaurant, ignoring calls of _‘Get back here and pay!_ ’ that echo behind him.

Nothing stops him until he gets back to the big ship, the Moby Dick, herself, jumping aboard, practically unable to control the fires of excitement that surround him. He’s trying his best to not set the hand he’s holding the paper in ablaze, but it still gets a little singed.

 “Hey, Pops!” Ace practically _throws_ the door open to where Whitebeard is, excitedly waving a bounty poster.

It hadn’t settled in that it’s been three years until he saw this. _Three years_ , since then, he’s met plenty of people. There was this little girl in Wano that he wants to go back and visit someday, and there have been others too. Most importantly, he became a son of Whitebeard, and his crew integrated into his – once enemies, now that image is incredibly riddled with respect.

Accepted for who he is, what an _amazing_ feeling, one that comes and goes and dances around the eyes and nose. He wears the Jolly Roger on his back ever so proudly. Now that Luffy’s out in the ocean, he’ll get to show him it too!

“So this is the little brother, is it?” Whitebeard asks, a chuckle accompanying.

“Yeah, this is Luffy!”

 _He’s not that weak anymore, but if he couldn’t do that much, then he wouldn’t be anywhere close to that dream of his_.

“You two are similar.”

Ace looks again at the poster, and closely. Looks like their pictures ended up pretty similar. Leave it to Luffy to follow in his footsteps! Or was it just coincidence that that the two of them ended up with such a similar pose? Luffy’s looks far goofier, but it suits him. It really does.

“Well, of course! He’s my brother!”

Soon, he’s showing the others that’ll listen to him, too.

* * *

His pride, adventures, and search brought him here. He’s following a trail and the ends still aren’t clear. Time to think through a bit, and take this chance to breathe a moment.

Standing on the beach, he removes his shoes to feel the sand beneath his feet. Sand that would be hot to others, probably, feels cool, just a little less so than the sea breeze. This island _tastes_ open. And the sea? The sea looks so calm, so clear, even if he knows dangers lurk beneath it.

Well, not that he’d exactly know exactly what it is, unless it came out for him.

“Hey, it’s _this_ way!”

Ace turns his head, looking in the direction of the voice. It was a woman’s voice, but he can see, in the distance, a man standing at the shore. Something feels strikingly familiar about this, but he can’t see his face, he can’t hear his voice, he’s gone too quickly.

“Nah, it couldn’t be. Eyes must be playing tricks on me.” Just another blow the cards of this world decides to deal him. “Feels like something is...”

He turns around, walking opposite of the two in the distance. Pushing down his hat, he tries his best to smile, and curses the every delusion of his for trying to fool him. Don’t go over there, because it’s just a farce. _Keep going_.

“…stabbing my heart.”

His fingers touch his tattoo on his arm, specifically over the crossed out ‘ _S_.’ His tribute. That part of his skin – funny he thinks that – must be feeling hotter than the rest. Of _all_ times, **_no_** , he mustn’t let the World get this victory. He’ll never forget; he’d regret it, but this, this is just a silhouette. That’s just some other guy. Hats that look like that _can’t_ be rare. He’s too far away.

 _And_ , it’s about time he got going.

_Hey, Sabo, see my bounty? I’m making good on my word. Really infamous and cool, yeah? People of all seas know my name! ‘Fire Fist’ Ace!_

He raises his hand, pointing his fingers out to sea in a gun-shape. _Bang!_ And with that shot of fire into the water, where it blazes on the surface briefly before the inevitable disappearance, the ignition alights anew, for his search, for his movements out across the land.

Without spending any more time, he hurries along to the _Striker_ and hops right on. Back into the breeze, away from here, that place that has tried to leak lies into his mind.

As he sails, he begins to hum the old song Luffy once brought up, the one he ended up partying to with Shanks back when he met him. _Binks’ Sake_ , they called it. The empty sky, a melody that barely pierces through the rest of the expanse. It sounds a little sorrowful in solitude, in the memory of when he— _haha_ , _there are ups too!_ Puff up and go forward with a _don_! Capture what is needed, and restore that responsibility and honor.

So he laughs, and follows his heart, and senses, onward. To trust, to pride, to the future!

To living!

 _Living, **living**_ … what a term.

* * *

He leaves a note for Luffy on Drum Island. His kid brother’s done great to make it this far! He can’t wait to finally see him again, after _three_ years! _I’ll make Pops the Pirate King, but Luffy’s not all talk anymore._

They meet in Alabasta, under circumstances that aren’t quite so predictable, but Luffy’s excitement, and his reputation, are irrefutable. Casually knocking people into this restaurant here and then plopping down to eat, even though there’s a Marine _right there!_ That’s his brother.

Ace has his back, of course, and he’s able to throw the Marines off with ease.

Luffy’s ship is easy to find. It’s a small, homely ship, one that looks like a fun time to sit on the head of and stare out to the water. He hears Luffy talking about him, about how he used to get beat up in sparring all the time, but now he could totally take him! _Is that so, Luffy? I’d like to see you try!_

“Oh? You’d beat _who_ now?”

He hops right on, knocking Luffy right on over, and greets him and the crew he has. _A nice bunch_.

“Anyway, Luffy, you and your crew should join the Whitebeard Pirates with me.”

“Nope!”

“Got it. You know, I really look up to him!” Ace turns to show his back, “I’m aiming to make him the Pirate King.”

“Then I’ll have to fight him.”

“Just what I thought you’d say. You get that musician yet?”

“Next crew member for sure!” Luffy says. Ace has a feeling that’s what Luffy says for each and every crew member. With Luffy’s luck, he won’t get a musician for a while.

An easy, quick conversation. Once it’s done, he knows what Luffy’s planning, just by the look in his eyes. So he plants himself steady and prepares for the jump. Luffy’s arms stretch and _yup!_ there's the hug.

“It’s nice to meet you guys! The name’s Ace.” He says, patting Luffy on the head meeting their stares.

“Like I said, he’s my older brother!” Luffy’s clarifying declaration comes right before Ace can say it himself.

He watches their reactions, a mixture of shock, acceptance, and wonder. It’s also happiness, for Luffy, he’s certain. Maybe some of them have heard of him. He wouldn’t be entirely surprised, since Luffy’s a talker, a late night one, especially. Well, they know now, for sure, so they shouldn’t forget it!

The crew looks close, as one should. Luffy’s in good hands.

“Ace, you should try Sanji’s food! It’s really good!”

“If I had the time, I’d love to,” Ace says.

He sizes them all up, the ones present, as Luffy introduces each and every one of them. Saying their names and stretching his arms to point closely at them. He really, really is glad to have them, and that relieves Ace as well.

Looks like Luffy did end up meeting Yasopp’s kid too. If he sees Shanks and his crew again, he’ll pass it along, but maybe the posters will tell that tale before he can.

He doesn’t have a lot of time. So he’s got to gather up and get a move on.

“Sorry, Luffy, looks like I gotta go.”

“Already?”

“Yeah,” Ace nods, but he fishes and holds up a piece of paper, “but this’ll help you find me later.”

“It will?”

“Yeah, it will. So I’ll see you again. We’ll be out on the same seas, you know.”

“Right!”

“And to you, his crew!” He begins, “I know he’s a handful, but thanks for taking care of him for me.”

He turns to leave, since it looks like there’s some company coming for them that isn’t so pleasant, but then something else hits him, like a candle’s just been lit. He fishes around in his bag and whirls back around.

“Which one of you is the navigator?”

Ace asks this, but his attention immediately turns to Nami. Maybe it’s sense, maybe it’s experience, or just a gut feeling, but there’s an air about the skilled ones that radiates well. “I’m sure you’d protect anything worthwhile and precious with your all, if you’re navigating _his_ ship,” laughs Ace. “I’ve got a few things for you before I run. You can show Luffy later. He’ll appreciate it.”

Nami nods, because he’s nailed it. Valuable? In sentiment or Beli? She’s assuming the former, and quickly accepts what Ace holds out. “This sure _looks_ important,” she says, “This a pretty old book on navigation… pretty beat up too.”

“Yeah, you can blame Luffy for that much,” Ace says, “And me too. We’ve had it since we were kids.”

“You mean you studied this?”

“Haha, sort of. Let’s just say it’s something I don’t want to get burned.” He can see the puzzle on her face, but he chooses to leave it at that. There’s no need for more words, “Thanks for taking it.”

“Oh, no problem! Can’t believe _you’re_ his brother…”

And there lays _part_ of a lingering question that he didn’t bother asking. Luffy’s always been pretty attached, having relied on him for so long, but his own now. The seas can’t be blamed for being vast and full of stories that makes the past stay still and the future go on ahead.

With that completed, he should shoving back off on his search.

“Hey, older brother.” His departure is interrupted, briefly by Sanji, the cook, who’s holding out a lunch pack towards him, talking with the cigarette he snapped alight just before. Looks like he’ll get to try that cooking sooner than later! “You wouldn’t have been imposing if you stayed for tea, but this’ll have to do. Had a hunch to make an extra one. Our captain’s an idiot, and we’re gonna get dragged into a hell of lot more things then just this.” Sanji grins, even if their words shouldn’t seem fit to it. “But he’s our idiot. We’re behind him.”

“Thanks for the food!”

Ace carefully puts the box in his bag and takes his leave, using the _Striker_ to move quickly. Flames can stop these enemies with ease, and so he’ll support Luffy’s movements to get deeper into Alabasta.

He figured they’d end up in different crews. All three of them had always wanted to be captains, stubborn as they were. With that Vivre Card, Luffy’ll be sure he’s alive, and Ace’ll hear Luffy’s name in the future, he’s certain.

That book he handed to Nami will be in good hands too, he thinks. Luffy deserves to have it with him, since it’ll probably be safer with him than with Ace right now. _Sabo, we’ll keep going_.

 _Straight on to the freedom you wanted_.

Onwards, he goes. To pursue Blackbeard. He’ll go through plenty. Helping others, meeting different pirates, infiltration, and confrontations that echo.

 _See ya at the top, Luffy_.

* * *

“Luffy! Turn back!”

“Not gonna happen! I’m going to save you, Ace!”

He’s not surprised Luffy made it here. Boa Hancock _had_ told him that he was trying to rescue him, by first breaking into _Impel Down_ and now, coming to the stage of it all. The World is parading his execution, for he’s a danger, for he’s the son of the Pirate King, for he’s a necessary fall.

This isn’t the top he meant. This isn't the one he was supposed to meet his brother again at.

And of course, this plane would reject him. Look at his grandfather, fighting back, disappointed.

Yet, Ace knows, if he had become a Marine, he wouldn’t have felt anywhere close to being free. Tied down in the course of government would have avoided this, but he wouldn’t have been happy. He would have felt as good as dead.

What friends would he have made? He wouldn’t have met Deuce, or the rest of his mismatched crew. He wouldn’t have ended up a part of Whitebeard’s crew, and he certainly wouldn’t have had a father. He wouldn’t have seen Luffy come so far, he believes, either.

Disappointing as it may be, he never had been cut from the right cloth to be a ‘good guy.’

He’s the son of cursed blood, the brother of a boy with blood just as dangerous, with dreams, hopes, and conflict charring his path for all to see.

He sees them all arrive, and fighting. All of them. His crewmates, his captain, even others. Only here, overlooking it all, does it hit him. It hits him so, so hard, and he can’t help but hit his forehead to the ground before him, and try to choke these emotions back.

There’s no containing it though. His joy. Even if they’re falling, even if there’s blood being split, they’re here for him, when he thought no one would be. It’s not fair. Why here. Why _now_?

“What’s wrong with me?”

The efforts culminate, and his shackles are removed from his. He’s free, free to fight, and run. This is a battle where the fight is to now cut through and flee. That’s where his justification comes from. The safety of those who can make it, since their goal had been him.

Luffy is stopped, fire and rubber become separated and Ace turns around. _No! No, no, no! Luffy!_

He jumps, without hesitation, between the molten rocks, that punch forward, and his brother.

_I’m not gonna die. I can’t leave my dumb, crybaby little brother alone._

These are the words that flash before him as his protection crumbles to the despair of everyone. Luffy would have died from it; that’s what Ace thinks, but now, _now_ , it’s him that’s… going to… die… He had been prepared to, he _thought_. He gave his piece, and told Jinbe to watch out for Luffy too.

Now, faced with it being reality… _here_ of all places?

He collapses against Luffy, using all the strength he has left not to burden his injured brother anymore. This is something that he didn’t want Luffy to see, but he couldn’t run away. Not from Luffy’s side. Behind his back, had been too many things he wanted to protect.

“I’m sorry, Luffy.”

Luffy’s yelling. About his promise to not die and leave him alone. About treating his wounds. It’s no use. No use at all. His mind is getting full of smoke, his guts are more than useless, and it’s a struggle even to speak.

He’s dying.

“Yeah, I did promise. But I already know it, Luffy. I broke it.”

“It’s thanks to Sabo and you that I wanted to live in the first place. If I didn’t have a kid brother like you, I would’ve give up.” Ace’s speech kicks and his lungs ache as he speaks. He’ll be gone soon. He knows it.

“The only thing… is that I won’t see you make it to your dream… But you can do it. You’re my little brother. ”

Luffy shakes. He can feel him getting weaker against him. He’s losing strength too. The words aren’t falling out of him like they used to. Ha, it hurts. It hurts a lot. There’s so much more to say, but he can’t even do that much. What about those tears from now long ago? How happy he was to see just how many people cared about him? To see his friends, his _family_ , there, ready to put their life on the line to rescue him?

The magma really stepped into that, but every last bit of his uncertainty faded away that day. He feels like he belonged in this world, finally; he’s glad he was born. He wanted to be _alive_ , right there on the chopping block, was where his desires flourished, exploding into a heart-aching inferno.

He got to see him again. Fight alongside him, for old time’s sake.

“Pops, everyone… Luffy.” Luffy’s crying without even realizing it. He’s so frozen that his body feels cool. It’s relieving, relaxing, in a way. He cries, bloodied tears stain his brother’s shoulder, maybe worse the blood on his hands. “Thank you for loving me.”

With those words, sobs embrace the wind.

_Hey, Sabo, are you listening? I took care of him, best I could without you. You were always the nicer one. Couldn’t spoil him silly like you did. Am… I joining you now?_

Upon his face is a smile, as his eyes close, as his strength leaves him completely.

_Hey, Sabo, I gotta thank you too. Thank you for giving me a reason to live. Thank you for the dreams. Thank you for being my brother. Luffy’ll be fine. He’s a stubborn, but he’s got good friends that’ll keep him straight._

He’s falling, falling. His consciousness is slipping away and it’s ash.

_Hey, Sabo, let’s keep an eye on him together now. Sucks that we couldn’t watch his dream come true for real. That’s it. The sole regret I have._

_Sorry, Luffy, you’ll get past this. You’ve got your crew, so you won’t be alone. You’ll make it._

_You’re my… **our** brother after all._

To slumber he goes, where his flames are snuffed, but they, they shall be inherited. The embers will never be gone.

_Thank you, my brothers, for loving the hopeless me._

His journey cannot end with his body. The warmth, his warmth, will be felt across the World. A legacy cannot be drawn away, just as a known name cannot be forever erased.

_My adventures are never-ending. I’m free, so I’ll just be going on ahead. See you around._

A wave of tears that cannot be stopped, will tumble, and they’ll spill, spill all over until the ocean is replaced by these bitter-sweet droplets. A gear? A brilliant meteor, whose tears, happiness, emotions, burst into the World, just as a volcano erupts.

Those who remain will make this cursed fate regret taking him away. For they’ll come back stronger. Marco may be a phoenix, but Luffy’s a rubber man who can bounce _back_.

Ace, Ace believes in his little brother, and his family, and thanks them, thanks them with this final beam, a ray in the dark, fiery, powerful, eternal, remembered.

Just like the sun.

_In life, in death, every island and wave, and the spaces that hold them, casts his name! He is one of three brothers, sworn over fondness and sake. Known as ‘Fire Fist’ to the broadest of horizons, he is Portgas D. Ace!_


End file.
